On a sunny Labor Day morning in Oklahoma, Linda Wilburn’s younger son, 19-year-old Orbie, hopped into his 1994 red Camaro and headed east from Weatherford on Interstate 40. The college freshman, excited about his new rental house, needed to collect more stuff from his parent’s place, 10 miles away. At mile marker 87, he encountered a stall blocking both eastbound lanes. The young man slowed and stopped the Camaro. And then, on Sept. 2, 2002 Orbie DeWayne Wilburn was dead, smashed from behind by a big rig bearing down on him at high speed.

The 41-year-old truck driver from Kentucky, who also also died at the scene, had driven from Bakersfield, Calif. – nearly 1,300 miles away – to Oklahoma “without a rest break at all,” said Orbie’s mother.

Now the Wilburn family is steeling themselves for a new fight as the anniversary of Orbie’s death approaches. This week, the Trump administration formally proposed easing the rules over rest breaks truck drivers must take, and giving them more flexibility over their on- and off-duty time.

The proposed changes to the “hours of service” rules by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration were published Aug. 20 in the Federal Register, with a public comment period open for 45 days.

Dueling statistics

Both sides view the proposals as critical to safety, though they see the statistics through starkly different lenses.

Opponents, many of them grieving families like the Wilburns and highway safety groups, say the rollbacks are dangerous as government data show that deaths from crashes involving large trucks hit a 10-year high in 2017 at 4,761.

Proponents of the changes, including trucking companies and many commercial drivers, have long argued that existing rules for truckers are too burdensome and make no allowances for human needs and real-world business concerns. The same federal data also show that the rate of fatalities in large truck crashes based on vehicle miles traveled has declined steadily since 1975.

“We listened directly to the concerns of drivers for rules that are safer and have more flexibility – and we have acted,” Raymond P. Martinez, who heads the motor carrier safety agency, part of the Department of Transportation, said in a news release.

A 2015 FairWarning story revealed how the trucking industry had spent heavily on congressional lobbying and campaign contributions, urging looser restrictions on trucking companies and their drivers.

Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board, an advisory agency with no regulatory power, has zeroed in on fatigued driving as a safety issue that is more serious than statistics suggest.

“Drowsy driving does not leave telltale signs and, as a result, it is widely believed to be underreported on police crash forms,” according to the agency, which has placed reducing fatigue-related accidents on its 2019-2020 “Most Wanted List” of safety improvements.

Flexibility for truckers

Among key details of the proposed rule changes, commercial truckers would be given greater flexibility to adjust their work and drive time to accommodate adverse weather and traffic conditions, and manage their downtime while trucks are being loaded and unloaded.

Commercial drivers still would be limited to 11 hours of driving time, but would be allowed to spread the 11 hours over a longer period of the day. In adverse conditions, another proposal would extend by two hours the maximum window during which driving is permitted.

“How does one say that telling a truck driver, ‘You’re going to work a longer day,’ improve safety?” asked Harry Adler, executive director of the Truck Safety Coalition, a national network of volunteers that supports survivors and family members of truck-crash victims.

Adler said the government’s proposals could be used by “bad actors” in the trucking industry to exploit their drivers for competitive advantage.

“These (proposals) are opportunities for drivers to be pushed to their limits further, to drive without resting. It’s more opportunity for a driver to operate while fatigued, which is really detrimental,” he said.

Orbie Wilburn and mother, Linda, before the 2002 fatal crash. (Courtesy of family)

Adler’s group has seen the emotional wreckage from fatigue-related truck crashes, with people like the Wilburns now counseling other devastated families and testifying before Congress. There is the Florida woman who lost her 23-year-old son and his new bride, killed while returning from their honeymoon when a semi-truck driver fell asleep at the wheel. And the Maryland man, whose wife was killed and 12-year-old son permanently disabled when the driver of a triple-tractor trailer on the Ohio Turnpike also fell asleep.

Dan Horvath of the American Trucking Associations said in an interview with FairWarning that the organization needs time to examine the data and research to see if the government’s proposals “are going to keep highways as safe as or safer than they currently exist.” ATA is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry.

“We are not quick to give an immediate response,” said Horvath, vice president of safety policy. “We really do take the time to do a thorough review, to work with our members.”

What is a constant, she said, is that commercial drivers must comply with hours of service regulations but their customers do not. “Shippers and receivers can keep them waiting as long as they want, and they do,” she said, noting that such delays burn down a driver’s allowable work window.

Same with other unexpected hurdles, such as traffic and weather conditions and accidents. “Then they have to race against the clock to meet deliveries and to also stay within compliance,” she said.

Taylor also said that “fatigue is very rare” in truck crashes. Recent government statistics show that 60 out of 4,600 drivers of large trucks involved in fatal crashes in 2017 were asleep or fatigued, or about 1.3 percent.

Emotional wreckage

Harry Adler of the Truck Safety Coalition doesn’t buy the argument, saying – as the NTSB does – that driver fatigue is almost certainly under-counted as a cause of crashes.

“I would also push back on the folks who say, ‘It’s only 60 people,’” he said. “I mean, folks, if amongst those 60 people it’s your loved one, it’s not just 60 people.”

In Oklahoma, Linda Wilburn still weeps when she describes her son’s death, one week after classes began at Southwestern Oklahoma State University. He planned to become an engineer.

She still wonders if her second son, named after his grandfather, had even a moment to recognize the impending danger.

On impact, both vehicles caught fire. And both drivers died, leaving Orbie’s car a tangle of melted and misshapen debris.

“There was just nothing left,” said Wilburn, whose family eventually settled a lawsuit with the trucking company.

Her husband, a volunteer firefighter at the time, went to the crash scene to join his co-workers that mild September morning. Gary Wilburn walked by the wreckage several times before suddenly realizing – based on a piece of wheel – that the car might be his son’s.

“I vowed early on – the first few days – if there was anything that I could do to prevent this from happening to one other family, I would do it,” said Wilburn, a board member for Parents Against Tired Truckers, part of the Truck Safety Coalition.

“The trucking industry has so much money and so many people who can spend their whole career lobbying,” she said. “We’re a handful. It’s hard for us to get the word out.”

This story was produced by FairWarning (www.fairwarning.org), a nonprofit news organization based in Southern California that focuses on public health, consumer and environmental issues.

]]>https://oklahomawatch.org/2019/08/22/battle-looms-over-trump-administration-bid-to-ease-trucking-safety-rules/feed/0The Invisibles: Without a Car, Riding Hours a Day on the Bushttps://oklahomawatch.org/2019/02/19/the-invisibles-without-a-car-riding-hours-a-day-on-the-bus/
https://oklahomawatch.org/2019/02/19/the-invisibles-without-a-car-riding-hours-a-day-on-the-bus/#respondTue, 19 Feb 2019 16:08:58 +0000http://oklahomawatch.org/?p=472936

Felicia Jones is one of many Tulsa-area residents who depend on local bus service but struggle to make the system work efficiently for them. Bus ridership in Tulsa and Oklahoma City declined in 2017, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Transit Database. Figures for 2018 have not yet been filed with the agency.

In this video series, Oklahoma Watch profiles individuals whose quiet struggles in life reflect some of the larger issues facing the state. The series is made possible by a sponsorship from the Chickasaw Nation.

]]>https://oklahomawatch.org/2019/02/19/the-invisibles-without-a-car-riding-hours-a-day-on-the-bus/feed/0Upcoming Watch-Out Forum: Where Mass Transit Is Headed in Tulsa Areahttps://oklahomawatch.org/2016/02/18/oklahoma-watch-to-hold-forum-on-future-of-tulsa-area-transit/
https://oklahomawatch.org/2016/02/18/oklahoma-watch-to-hold-forum-on-future-of-tulsa-area-transit/#respondThu, 18 Feb 2016 23:04:26 +0000http://oklahomawatch.org/?p=44821TULSA – Oklahoma Watch will hold a public forum on the future of mass transit in the greater Tulsa area on Tuesday, March 8, from 6 to 7 p.m. at Central Center, located at 1028 E. 6th St. in Tulsa.

The question-and-answer forum will feature Debbie Ruggles, assistant general manager of Tulsa Transit, and James Wagner, principal transportation planner for the Indian Nations Council of Government (INCOG), the metropolitan planning organization for greater Tulsa.

Public transportation in Tulsa and surrounding communities is generally regarded as lagging systems in peer cities, which limits access to jobs, schools, services and places of recreation. On April 5, will Tulsa voters approve or reject a permanent sales tax that would pay $57 million for transit operations and capital over 15 years? Would the improvements meet residents’ needs? In the Tulsa region, will more residents cut back on driving and ride buses? Will improved bus transit ultimately lead to a regional rail system?

Oklahoma Watch Executive Editor David Fritze will moderate the discussion. Those interested in attending are encouraged to register online at this link and come with questions.

About the Guests

Debbie Ruggles

Debbie Ruggles is the assistant general manager for Tulsa Transit. She has been a public transportation professional for more than 35 years. During that time, she has managed several transit agencies across the country, including the transit agency in Boise, Idaho, that was named the Most Outstanding Transit System in America by the American Public Transportation Association. Currently, Ruggles is project manager for Tulsa Transit’s Bus Rapid Transit project planned for the Peoria Corridor.

James Wagner

James Wagner is the principal transportation planner for INCOG, working with member governments on programs to improve transit and bicycle/pedestrian transportation options for Tulsa area cities and counties. Most recently, Wagner led the effort to create a regional bicycle/pedestrian master plan, commonly known as the GO Plan. His prior work includes the development of Tulsa’s first regional transit system plan, known as Fast Forward, and the Peoria Bus Rapid Transit project, which was approved for construction by Tulsa voters in 2013.